Afleveringen
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On Easter Sunday 2023, retired couple Stephen and Carol Baxter were found dead in the conservatory of their home on Mersea Island, off the Essex coast. Initially their deaths were - until toxicology revealed both had been poisoned with the powerful opioid fentanyl. Suspicion fell on Luke D’Wit, the unassuming IT consultant who had spent a decade quietly embedding himself in the Baxters’ lives as friend, employee and unofficial carer. In this episode, forensic psychologist Kerry Daynes profiles a real-life puppet master — a man who built twenty fake online identities to control his victims, forged a will to inherit their business, and watched on a hidden phone feed as they died. Listen now to The Profiler, with Kerry Daynes.
Key psychological themes
This episode explores: psychopathy and the urge for control • the long con — grooming adults over a decade • catfishing and the use of fake online identities • performative care and the "surrogate son" persona • power, patience and the puppet-master mindset
Contributors featured in this episode
Kerry Daynes — Forensic psychologist, presenter, and author of Dark Side of the Mind and What Lies Buried.
Ellis Whitehouse — Chief Reporter, Essex Live; covered the case from the day the bodies were discovered.
Hannah Pettifer — ITV News reporter; reported on the investigation and trial at Chelmsford Crown Court.
Gary Cunningham — Former homicide detective.
Professor Atholl Johnston — Professor of Clinical Pharmacology; expert on fentanyl and overdose.
Detective Superintendent Rob Kirby — Senior investigating officer, Essex Police
What you'll learn in this episode
How Luke D’Wit spent ten years embedding himself in the Baxters’ lives as IT consultant, friend and carer for Carol
Why fentanyl — fifty times stronger than heroin and a hundred times stronger than morphine — was the near-perfect murder weapon
How D’Wit created twenty fake online identities, including a Florida-based doctor and a confidante called "Jenny", to control Carol Baxter’s medical treatment
What a metal tack found inside Carol’s body, more than a year before the murders, revealed about D’Wit’s earlier intentions
Why a hidden phone live-streaming the Baxters’ final hours back to D’Wit’s home was the "silver bullet" piece of evidence
What Kerry Daynes identifies as the true motive — power and control, not money — once D’Wit’s plan to inherit a failing business unravelled
Relevant links and further reading
Kerry Daynes — Dark Side of the Mind (Endeavour, 2019)
Kerry Daynes — What Lies Buried (Endeavour, 2021)
https://www.essexlive.news/news/essex-news/listen-999-call-between-accused-9100011 — Essex Live: the harrowing 999 call from the scene
Essex Police — DI Rob Kirby on convicted killer Luke D’Wit (court-steps statement, available on Essex Police’s YouTube channel)
BBC News and The Guardian — contemporary coverage of the Mersea Island murders and the Chelmsford Crown Court trial
Support for those affected by sudden bereavement, poisoning and coercive control — Cruse Bereavement Support • Victim Support • Hourglass (for older victims of abuse)
Subscribe & follow
If you’re gripped by The Profiler, with Kerry Daynes, follow the show in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. A rating or review takes thirty seconds and genuinely helps new listeners find us.
Visit theprofiler.co.uk
For an exclusive filmed interview with Kerry Daynes on the cases behind the series — including untold detail on the Luke D’Wit investigation — visit theprofiler.co.uk. Subscribe to the newsletter for case updates, parole-hearing alerts, and early access to new episodes.
Content note
This episode contains an emergency-services recording made at the scene of two sudden deaths, and descriptions of poisoning, coercive control and the deliberate killing of vulnerable adults. Listener discretion is strongly advised. If you have been affected by the issues raised, support is available from Cruse Bereavement Support (0808 808 1677) and Victim Support (0808 168 9111).
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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By the summer of 1997, eight-year-old Jamie Lavis had been missing for nearly a month — and the Manchester bus driver who killed him, Darren Vickers, had vanished too. Tracked down to a North Wales fairground, where he was strapping children in and out of rides, Vickers was arrested, then released for lack of evidence, and welcomed back to the Lavis family home with a celebration party. In Part 2, forensic psychologist Kerry Daynes follows the police hunt for Jamie’s body in Reddish Vale Park, the trial that exposed Vickers as a grooming predator and child sexual abuser, and the chilling jailhouse confession he made only after the verdict was in. This is the story of how detectives finally broke through one of Britain’s most brazen killers. Listen now to The Profiler, with Kerry Daynes.
Key psychological themes
This episode explores: brazen manipulation • performative empathy and staged grief • the predator who returns to the scene • grooming and child sexual abuse • blame-shifting and false allegations • the psychology of a post-conviction confession
Contributors featured in this episode
Kerry Daynes — Forensic psychologist, presenter, and author of Dark Side of the Mind and What Lies Buried.
Roy Rainford — Retired Senior Investigating Officer, Greater Manchester Police; led the Jamie Lavis murder investigation.
Asif Husein — Former Greater Manchester Police Family Liaison Officer to the Lavis family; arrested Vickers in North Wales.
David Ward — Former Northern Correspondent for The Guardian; covered the case and the trial.
Jeff Anderson — Former Head of News, ITV Granada, Manchester.
What you'll learn in this episode
How Darren Vickers tried to evade arrest by fleeing to a North Wales fairground job that put him in daily contact with children
Why Vickers kept returning to Reddish Vale Park — and what Kerry Daynes says that compulsion reveals about him
How a single jaw bone, identified through dental records, finally gave detectives enough to charge him
What QC Brian Leveson’s courtroom address exposed about the grooming and sexual abuse of Jamie Lavis
Why Vickers confessed to senior detective Roy Rainford only AFTER the jury’s guilty verdict
How Karen Lavis went from defending her son’s killer to telling the press, on the courthouse steps, that justice had been done
Relevant links and further reading
Kerry Daynes — Dark Side of the Mind (Endeavour, 2019)
Kerry Daynes — What Lies Buried (Endeavour, 2021)
Faking It: Tears of a Crime (Warner Bros. Discovery) — some interviews in this episode were originally featured in the series. Watch on https://www.discoveryplus.com
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/326657.stm — BBC News archive: contemporary coverage of the Jamie Lavis case
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/disturbing-picture-shows-how-evil-15392826 — Manchester Evening News: how an evil child killer wormed his way into his victim’s family
Support for families of missing or murdered children — Missing People (UK) • Victim Support • NSPCC
Subscribe & follow
If you’re gripped by The Profiler, with Kerry Daynes, follow the show in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. A rating or review takes thirty seconds and genuinely helps new listeners find us.
Visit theprofiler.co.uk
For an exclusive filmed interview with Kerry Daynes on the cases behind the series — including untold detail on the Jamie Lavis investigation — visit theprofiler.co.uk. Subscribe to the newsletter for case updates, parole-hearing alerts, and early access to new episodes.
Credits
Presented by Kerry Daynes
Produced by Shearwater Media
Executive producers: Jeff Anderson and Steve Anderson
Editing & Music by Rob Warner
Content note
This episode contains descriptions of the abduction, sexual abuse and murder of a child, and references to the discovery of human remains. Listener discretion is strongly advised. If you have been affected by the issues raised, support is available from the NSPCC (0808 800 5000) and Victim Support (0808 168 9111)
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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In June 1997, eight-year-old Jamie Lavis vanished on his way home in Manchester. As his family launched a desperate search, a local bus driver — Darren Vickers — led appeals, comforted Jamie's mother, and walked the same streets where, days earlier, he had killed the boy. Forensic psychologist Kerry Daynes profiles a manipulative predator who weaponises trust and proximity to deflect suspicion: a killer who didn't run, but moved closer. This is the story of how the search for Jamie was, quietly, being steered by the man who already knew where he was. Listen now to The Profiler, with Kerry Daynes.
Key psychological themesThis episode explores: manipulative predators • hiding in plain sight • staged grief and performative empathy • the psychology of proximity to an investigation • how communities mis-read familiarity as safety
Contributors featured in this episode• Kerry Daynes — Forensic psychologist, presenter, and author of Dark Side of the Mind and What Lies Buried.
• Roy Rainford — former detective who led the investigation into Jamie’s disappearance.
• Asif Hussain – former police family liaison officer who first raised suspicions about Vickers.
• Jeff Anderson, former Head of News, ITV Granada
• David Ward — former Guardian journalist who interviewed Vickers before he became the prime suspect.
What you'll learn in this episode• Why some predators move toward an investigation rather than away from it — and what that behaviour reveals about their psychology
• How Vickerss used everyday roles — bus driver, neighbour, helper — to gain access to the Lavis family
• What Kerry Daynes calls "performative empathy": the way manipulative offenders mimic grief to disarm suspicion
• Why the small town familiarity that should have protected Jamie became the cover that allowed his killer to operate
• How the case changed the way Greater Manchester Police thought about volunteers in missing-child investigations
Relevant links and further reading• Kerry Daynes — Dark Side of the Mind (Endeavour, 2019)
• Kerry Daynes — What Lies Buried (Endeavour, 2021)
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/326657.stm — BBC News archive: contemporary coverage of the Jamie Lavis case
• https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/disturbing-picture-shows-how-evil-15392826 — Manchester Evening News: "The Disturbing Picture Which Shoes How An Evil Child Killer Wormed His way Into His Victim’s Family”
• Support for families of missing or murdered children — Missing People (UK) • Victim Support
Subscribe & followIf you're gripped by The Profiler, with Kerry Daynes, follow the show in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. A rating or review takes thirty seconds and genuinely helps new listeners find us.
Visit theprofiler.co.ukFor an exclusive filmed interview with Kerry Daynes on the cases behind the series — including untold detail on the Jamie Lavis investigation — visit theprofiler.co.uk. Subscribe to the newsletter for case updates, parole-hearing alerts, and early access to new episodes.
Credits• Presented by Kerry Daynes
• Produced by Shearwater Media
• Executive producers: Jeff Anderson and Steve Anderson
• Editing and Music by Rob Warner
Content noteThis episode contains descriptions of the abduction and murder of a child. Listener discretion is strongly advised. If you have been affected by the issues raised, support is available from the NSPCC (0808 800 5000) and Victim Support (0808 168 9111).
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Behind every murder is a motive. From revenge to jealousy, from greed to control, identifying what drives people to kill is essential in bringing them to justice.
For thirty years, Consultant Forensic Psychologist Kerry Daynes has unravelled the minds behind the darkest crimes. Now, in The Profiler, she takes you inside some of Britain’s most disturbing murder cases, presenting the full stories with the clarity of a seasoned documentary maker, but also stepping outside the narratives to do what she does best: getting inside the mind of each perpetrator to reveal what made them act the way they did.
More than just true crime, these are journeys into the darkest extremes of human behaviour — with someone who has actually sat across the table from killers and studied them up close.
New episodes every week. Cases drawn from the last three decades of British criminal history.
Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, or visit theprofiler.co.uk.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
